History - Architecture

Beverly W. Spillman was a prominent South Texas architect born in San Saba in 1885. After graduating from Texas A&M he moved to San Antonio around 1906 and joined an architectural firm. In 1907 he married Grace Glover, and they lived at 142 Laurel Heights Place in a house he designed.

Spillman was the architect for numerous theaters in South Texas and for the San Angelo Hotel. He also designed many commercial buildings, including one at 202 S. Flores Street (now the Cadillac Bar), Prospect Hill Baptist Church, and the general office building and entry gate for the San Antonio Portland Cement Co. In San Antonio there are at least six houses in Monte Vista designed by Spillman and two buildings in King William.

In 1906 Issac Henyan and his wife Pauline hired Spillman to design a house for their lot at the corner of Madison and Turner, today’s 202 Madison. Ed Steves & Sons supplied all the materials. According to the mechanics lien, the cost for the brick house, complete with plumbing, wiring, piping and heating, was $3,500.

The former Alamo Methodist Church, at 1150 S. Alamo St., also designed by Spillman, is a great example of Mission/Spanish Revival architecture. In 1908 trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church South bought two lots at this corner of S. Alamo and Wickes Street for $3,000. Church services were held in a house at 102 Wickes until January 1912, when the church building was begun. By the 1970s its congregation had dwindled so the church was merged with another and the building sold.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, this building is rumored to be “one that definitely is the home of a variety of spirits,” according to HauntedHouses.com. Alleged ghosts include locally famous Margaret Gething and her seamstress, Henrietta, who supposedly became attracted to the space during its reincarnation around 1975 as The Alamo Street Restaurant & Theatre. It was also home to Casbeers at the Church, a popular music venue and restaurant, until about 2011.